About an hour after the US military confirmed that several American troops were killed in an ISIS-claimed attack in Syria, Vice President Mike Pence declared that “the caliphate has crumbled” and the militant network “has been defeated.”

Pence made no comment about the attack in Manbij and did not offer condolences to the families of the fallen servicemen during his remarks to the Global Chiefs of Mission conference in Washington, CNN reported.

His press secretary said he and President Trump were “monitoring the situation.”

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It also led to major criticism that Washington was abandoning its local Kurdish allies amid Turkish threats of an imminent attack.

The president eventually said the pullout would be more gradual, but on Friday, a military official said the US-led military coalition had begun the process of withdrawing the troops from Syria.

On Wednesday, Pence voiced support for the move.

“Thanks to the leadership of this commander in chief and the courage and sacrifice of our armed forces, we’re now actually able to begin to hand off the fight against ISIS in Syria to our coalition partners and we’re bringing our troops home,” he said.

But he added that the US would “stay in the region and we’ll stay in the fight to ensure that ISIS does not rear its ugly head again. We will protect the gains that our soldiers and our coalition partners have secured.”